Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS)

Conseil universitaire pour le système des Nations Unies
Consejo Académico para el Sistema de las Naciones Unidas

Contact Details

Main address: Exec Dir: Dr Alistair Edgar, Wilfrid Laurier Univ, 75 University Ave West, ON N2L 3C5, Waterloo ON, Canada, Tel: (1 226) 772 3167, E-mail: aedgar (at) wlu.ca

URL: http://www.acuns.org/

Aims

Promote excellence in research, teaching and analysis that deals with the United Nations, multilateralism and international organizations; strengthen relations and mutual understanding between the academic and practitioner communities.

Official Relations

United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)^* (General); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)^* (Associate Status).

Activities

Organizes: annual conference; research and policy workshops; training events; summer workshops for younger scholars and practitioners. Continuing activities include: Dissertation Award Program; Building a Constituency for the UN through Education project.

Publications

ACUNS Quarterly Newsletter (4 a year); Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations - journal, jointly with UNU. The Ethics of Globalism by Donald J Puchala (1995); Human Development: The World After Copenhagen by Richard Jolly (1996); Beyond UN Subcontracting: Task-Sharing with Regional Security Arrangements and Service-Providing NGOs by Thomas G Weiss (1997); The Imperative of Idealism by James S Sutterlin (1997); The Quiet Revolutionary: A Biographical Sketch of James S Sutterlin by Jean E Krasso (1998); Ten Years After Esquipula: Looking Toward the Future by Oscar Arias Sanchez; ACUNS Membership Directory (1998); Toward Understanding Global Governance: The International Law and International Relations Toolbox by Charlotte Ku and Thomas G Weiss (1998); Putting ACUNS Together by Gene M Lyons (1999); Financing the United Nations by Jeffrey Laurenti (2001); The Founding of the United Nations: International Cooperation as an Evolutionary Process by Jean Krasno (2001); Global Governance and the Changing Face of International Law by Charlotte Ku (2001); Letting the People Decide: The Evolution of United Nations Electoral Assistance by Robin Ludwig (2001); Informal Ad Hoc Groupings of States and the Workings of the United Nations by Jochen Prantl and Jean Krasno (2002); The Role of the United Nations in Forming Global Norms by Joe Sills (2002); The United Nations and Disarmament by Derek Boothby (2002); Mirror, Tool or Linchpin for Change ? The UN and Development by Jacques Fomerand (2003); Reforming the United Nations: Lessons from a History in Progress by Edward Luck (2003); John Holmes Memorial Lectures (2002-2005); NGOs, the UN and Global Governance. Pamphlets; occasional papers and reports.

Members

Institutional and Individual members. Institutional members (48) in 21 countries:

• Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America.

• India, Japan, Taiwan/China.

• Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Included in the above, 30 organizations listed in this Yearbook:

• Development and Peace Foundation (SEF)^*;

• Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect^*;

• Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP)^*;

• Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (DHF)^*;

• Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (DA)^*;

• Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy^* - Edwin Ginn Library;

• Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (Environmental Ambassadors)^*;

• European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)^*;

• FIM-Forum for Democratic Global Governance (FIM)^*;

• Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES)^*;

• Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP)^*;

• German Development Institute (DIE)^*;

• Institute for Development and Peace, Duisburg (INEF)^*;

• Institute for Human Rights, Turku^*;

• International Association for Humanitarian Medicine Brock Chisholm (IAHM)^*;

• International Cooperation Research Association (ICRA)^*;

• International Jurist Organization (IJO)^*;

• Jan Masaryk Centre of International Studies (JMCIS)^*;

• Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies^*;

• Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies^*;

• Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)^*;

• Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies^*;

• John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding^*;

• Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI)^*;

• Elliott School of International Affairs^*;

• Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies^*;

• United States Institute of Peace (USIP)^*;

• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)^*;

• United Nations University Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP)^*;

• World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA).

Individual members (over 800) in 62 countries and territories:

• Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa.

• Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, United States of America, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).

• Brunei Darussalam, China, India, Iran - Islamic Republic of, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan/China, Thailand.

• Australia, New Zealand, Palau.

• Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

UNESCO NGO Section Data

Type of Relation with UNESCOAssociate Status

Admission Date2007

Programme sector: EDYes

Programme sector: SCNo

Programme sector: SHSYes

Programme sector: CLTYes

Programme sector: CIINo

Programme sector: BSPNo

Programme sector: AFRNo

Name and contact details of NGO focal point at UNESCOMme Goucha Moufida
SHS/SRP/PHS

History2007 Operational relations further to a decision of the Director General. The Executive Board was informed of this decision at its 179th session (Spring 2008).(document 179 EX/35) (179 EX/Dec.35)

Contribution to UNESCO's programmes Participation to UNESCO’s historic project. Areas of cooperation have been identified with ED, SHS and CLT, notably on themes such as Higher Education, Human Rights and Cultural dialogue. ACUNS will be working in close relationship with those Sectors to implement joint activities. A member of ACUNS participated, as a panellist to the International Forum of Civil Society that was held during the 34th session of the General Conference.

Keywords Education,Higher Education,Peace

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